CATHOLIC PETITIONS.
Reading edition
The earliest petition I know of, on behalf of the Roman Catholics is that addressed to James the First, beginning, “Most Puissant Prince, and Orient Monarch!” In this petition the sufferers class their persecutors as being Protestants, Puritans, and atheists, or politicians: a meddler in politics, in the days of the absolute Stuarts, was set down as an atheist.